From Bologna to Bust: CZ's Tell-All Proves SBF Thought Billions Grew on Trees

In his freshly dropped memoir Freedom of Money, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao serves up a delicious account of the chaos that was FTX's spectacular implosion — and apparently Sam Bankman-Fried had the audacity to casually request bailouts like he was ordering at a deli counter. According to Zhao, SBF gave him a ring asking for "a couple of billion dollars nonchalantly, as if he were asking for a bologna sandwich." This lovely phone call happened right before Binance attempted to swoop in and rescue FTX from itself back in November 2022. Because nothing says "due diligence" like a last-minute text to the competition.

But here's the thing: CZ wasn't exactly salivating at the prospect.

"I didn't have any interest in owning FTX. I also wasn't that interested in helping SBF," Zhao confesses between the lines. "But we may have to step in to protect the users and the industry." Ah yes, the classic "saving the ecosystem whether I like it or not" energy. Someone give this man a cape.

The non-binding Letter of Intent everyone got so hyped about? Yeah, that was basically a napkin with extra steps. "I was explicit that we were not making any commitment. Our team would simply assess the numbers and then decide." In crypto terms, this translates to: "We'll take a quick peek at your books, laugh nervously, and run."

Zhao lays the blame squarely at Alameda's doorstep for FTX's death spiral: when CEO Caroline Ellison publicly offered to buy Binance's $FTT holdings at $22 each, she basically flashed the entire trading world her floor price on a billboard. Professional traders with functioning brain cells immediately started shorting $FTT below that level. The token then proceeded to do its best impression of a falling knife, dropping from $22 to $15, then $10, then $5. In a mere 72 hours, $6 billion had stampeded out of FTX like customers fleeing a burning supermarket.

Zhao also confirms the juicy existence of something called "Exchange Collaboration" — a Signal group created by FTX's Zane Tackett during the Terra/$LUNA apocalypse, featuring Zhao himself, Bankman-Fried, Brian Armstrong from Coinbase, and Jesse Powell of Kraken. This wholesome little group later caught the very interested attention of DOJ and SEC investigators. "They were keen to find any possible hint of collusion or market manipulation between the exchanges," Zhao observes with the energy of someone who definitely wasn't sweating bullets. "Of course there was no such thing in this case." And we believe him completely. Totally normal industry coordination, nothing to see here.

By November 9, Binance pulled the plug faster than you can say "